MOBILE HEALTHCARE PROVISION
The mobile units bringing cancer care to the patient
Tina Seymour, CEO at charity, Hope for Tomorrow, looks at how mobile cancer care units are supporting NHS Trusts, and ‘revolutionising how life-saving treatment is delivered to communities thanks to digital innovation’.
The move to digital transformation is providing a vital gateway to accessible cancer care in the community, enabling more patients to spend significantly less time attending hospital-based appointments. It is, however, only at the beginning in terms of what remote technology can offer the healthcare sector in the years to come. There is also game-changing potential in its role to offer cancer care to communities that are often hard to reach – whether it be facilitating educational and support sessions within a community that allow NHS staff to provide life-saving information, such as self-examination guidance from specialist breast care nurses, or urology clinicians hosting catheterisation sessions for patients.
Innovation ‘world ‘first’ Hope for Tomorrow’s recent launch of its fourteenth mobile cancer care unit (MCCU) (HEJ – January 2022) heralded a significant feat in next generation state- of-the-art healthcare innovation, and signalled a new chapter in the way this vital care will be delivered. Cited as a ‘world first’ in healthcare
innovation, in being extendable hydraulically from its sides to create consultation space (the first in the Hope for Tomorrow fleet thus engineered), the unit includes two sound-proof consultation rooms with a videoconferencing facility for private clinics and specialist clinicians’ appointments, mood lighting for patient well-being, a small waiting area with television, and access to a Paxman cooler. The MCCU, which was specially designed and developed for the charity by Bence Coachworks, has the ability to treat up to five patients at any one time, with
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Hope for Tomorrow’s latest mobile cancer care unit is helping Airedale NHS Foundation Trust achieve NHS England’s 62-day cancer target for at least 85% of patients to start a first treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral.
three treatment chairs and its two consultation rooms.
Grant funding The project build, which has taken three years from start to finish, was made possible by a generous grant of almost £750,000 from global pharmaceutical company, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), which will also go towards funding a future unit. This latest MCCU is operated by Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire, and is helping it to achieve NHS England’s 62-day cancer target for at least 85% of patients to start a first treatment for the disease within two months (62 days) of an urgent GP referral. In a unique partnership with the NHS, the mobile unit will visit communities to offer accessible
The unit includes two sound-proof consultation rooms with a videoconferencing facility for private clinics and specialist clinicians’ appointments, mood lighting for patient well-being, a small waiting area with television, and access to a Paxman cooler
daily clinics, cancer screening, education programmes, and treatments including oral and intravenous chemotherapy, Paxman scalp cooling, flushing of PICC lines, and blood transfusions. Having designed and launched the
world’s first mobile chemotherapy unit in February 2007 in Cheltenham, Hope for Tomorrow now employs 17 staff, and operates a 14-strong fleet of MCCUs throughout the country, backed by 12 nurse support vehicles, working closely with NHS Trusts to deliver crucial cancer treatment and care to the heart of communities. Twelve mobile cancer care units are currently allocated to Trusts, with two units remaining in reserve to ensure minimal interruptions to service.
Developing range of services When we first started, our mobile units delivered only chemotherapy. As cancer treatments developed, Herceptin injections and other types of intravenous treatment that suit our existing units extremely well became available on board. What resonates with me is that people (generally) don’t like going to
March 2022 Health Estate Journal 39
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